Die Young
by SAR132-4
Summary: *WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS FOR THIRD SEASON!* Lou Young died in the line of duty, but his duty is not finished, he still has his afterlife to contend with. And sometimes . . . the afterlife, isn't so peaceful . . .
1. Hello Afterlife

Lewis "Lou" Young of team one in the Strategic Response Unit stood with his leg trembling on a land mine. He had just walked forward towards the bomb set in the university campus, and heard a click under his foot. His heart pounded, he had already called to say good bye. Mike "Spike" Scarlatti, his best friend throughout the course of his time on team one was going out of his way to save him. But it was impossible, Spike had said it himself that the bomb was unable to be disarmed, the only way to disarm it was covered by super glue.

He looked over at Spike who was busily trying to argue with his team mates to help him perform a weight transfer so they could put a substitute of Lou's weight onto the mine and Lou could be safe, they could knock back a few beers at the bar, talk about how close of a call it was and laugh away the rest of the night.

It wasn't going to end this way.

Jules was arguing for Spike to save himself, Lou understood, but couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Wordy was on Spike's side, saying how he'd save Lou no matter what. Sam was talking about how helpless this situation was, Lou put most of his trust in the rookie who had seen what these mines could do. But he couldn't help but feel helpless in the face of all this trouble, but he had to do what he had to do.

"Spike?" he asked, trying to choke back his tears, but they still fell down his face.

"Yeah buddy," Spike said, his voice full of determination of getting his friend out alive.

"It's gonna be okay," Lou closed his eyes as he stepped off the mine . . .

All Lou could register was the ground exploding, and then . . . nothing, he was catapulted out of his body with such great force, it was like an atomic bomb, not a land mine, had gone off.

He was still in his SRU uniform, grey pants, black jacket and ballistic vest, he stood up groggily, had he lived through that?

Then he saw a battered and torn body, his body, Spike was in hysteria, Jules was burrowing her head in Wordy's shoulder, and Sam was walking off. Lou understood what happened, he had died.

"So . . . am I a ghost?" Lou asked looking down at a chain on his chest, "What is this?"

"_It is the chain of fate . . ._" a creepy voice called, and a hooded figure came out, seemingly standing on the sky, Lou's eye's widened slightly in fear, "_And I am the grim reaper. MUHAHAHA-OW!!_"

In that time, a woman with dark brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and brown eyes had come up behind the hooded figure so fast that Lou thought she appeared out of nowhere.

She had some sort of Japanese wardrobe on, a sword was at her side and over the black hakama ( 1 ) was a white and sleeveless haori ( 2 ). She had slapped the hooded guy on the head so hard, he toppled head over heels and the hood came off.

The guy who had so callously frightened Lou had black hair in a cowlick and light brown eyes. He had a hoodie under the long sleeved hakama, which was why he was hooded in the first place.

"Aww c'mon Saki! What was that for?!" he pouted at the woman as he rubbed a growing welt on his head.

"For being an idiot," the woman, Saki, answered, "I thought about bringing you along for a simple hollow slaying expedition, not a cosplay of some grim reaper. And it's Captain Hayashi!"

"But grim reapers are fun!" the guy retorted earning another punch on the head.

"Not when you have to do my job!" Saki muttered, she looked down at Lou, who was watching them with an intense look of confusion on his face.

"Who are you people?!" Lou finally blurted out.

Saki nodded to herself as if it seemed that she should have known he was going to ask that, "I'm Captain Saki Hayashi of the Fifth Division in the Gotei-13, I am a soul reaper."

"Yo," the other guy said, "I'm Ichirou Okamoto third seat, Division Ten of the Gotei-13, I'm also a soul reaper."

"So you are grim reapers," Lou said hesitantly.

"Yeah, except Ichirou's anything but grim . . ." Saki muttered, then said louder for Lou to hear, "We are technically Soul Reapers, carrying the same job as the Europeanized reapers, but we originate from Japan."

"Then how come you speak English," Lou said, noting that they did have a slight Japanese accent.

"Well . . . we learn the language in the academy," Ichirou said, with an air of importance to his tone, "But don't worry, there are all types in Soul Society where you are going, no doubt you will find other Canadianese Speakers like yourself."

A vein burst out on Saki's forehead, but she kept her peace, not mentioning to Ichirou that there was no such thing as "Canadianese" it was just English or French or Spanish in Canada, give or take a few dialects spoken by native tribes.

"Uhh . . ." was all Lou could say, he was at a loss for words.

"Look," Saki said in a softer tone than what she said before, "We are here to send you to the afterlife, which is Soul Society, you may call it 'Heaven' or 'passing on' in your world."

Lou blanched, everything he had known, from what the priest had told him when he was very young to what they would say at his funeral about him spending time in Heaven, was pretty much a lie.

"Yeah, we get a lot of those expressions," Ichirou said somewhat offhandedly, but with a softness in his eyes, "But it's gonna be okay, you are going to be with lost loved ones and such, not everything you've been told is a lie, there is a better place."

With that Ichirou drew his sword, Lou's eye's narrowed, instinctively reaching for the gun at his holster, then realizing he didn't have it. Saki said, "It'll be alright, we are sending you off now."

Ichirou suddenly appeared in front of Lou and tapped his forehead with the pommel of his sword. A Kanji symbol appeared on Lou's forehead and he was engulfed in a white light . . .

Saki watched as Lou's spirit disappeared with a black Swallow Tail butterfly, a Hell Butterfly which would transport his soul safely to Soul Society.

Saki looked back to where there were several people in Team One still gathered, mourning the loss of their team mate. She turned back to Ichirou, "It best be time we get going."

"Okay," Ichirou said happily as he sheathed his sword, and shunpo-ed ( 3 ) up to Saki, "You think we can get some maple syrup before we finish our mission? See Niagra Falls? Score some girls?"

"ICHIROU!" Saki's reiatsu ( 4 ) filled the area as she finally got annoyed enough.

* * *

**A/N: Wow . . . so yeah, the plot bunnies in my head couldn't keep one story idea going so they decided to start another :P don't worry, un-updated fan fictions will be updated in due time my friends. **

**Vocab, (the little numbers in the parenthesis) **

**( 1 ) A hakama is a traditional Japanese clothing item, worn over a kimono, just Google it if you don't understand, I can't explain what it looks like. **

**( 2 ) Haoris are** **lightweight silk jackets used to help keep the kimono clean and dry. The length varies. And in this instance, haoris are used to signify that the person is of a captain level. (which means they are very . . . very powerful)**

**( 3 ) Shunpo is a method of dodging and moving that soul reapers use to move around. Namely captains and lieutenants use it, but some lower ranking soul reapers can do it as well but minimally. Shunpo is basically the essence of getting from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time and steps.**

**( 4 ) Reiatsu is the form of power soul reapers use, they use it to control their zanpaktou (the sword Ichirou was using to send Lou off to Soul Society) and other demon arts, which will be explained further on.**

**Read and review please, that's all I ask of you. **


	2. Life After Death

**I'm back! AND JUST WROTE 50k words for a month long challenge! –dances- AND THIS TIME! I'M PUBLISHING IT! Yeah, online in Amazon, I'll fill you guys in with the details once everything is hammered out. I still need to get it edited and such.**

**Give it a read, I'm the author, and I say it's pretty good. :)**

**Enough advertising, I own nothing except my poor drawing of Lou in a shinigami uniform. And of course, my novel, "The Great Cookie of Life" coming to an Amazon shopping cart near you! **

* * *

Lou's spirit seemed to be traveling at the speed of light towards a light, how cliché that he was heading towards the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. His spirit came to rest in a huge line of other spirits.

A small slip of paper appeared in his hand and he barely got the chance to look at it before he was whisked away once more. But what he saw was a number, the number 30.

Suddenly, he was in this Edo-era looking town, he saw many men and women talking and wearing clothes that obviously were showing that they were of a peasant class. Lou felt out of place, as he was still in his SRU uniform, many people blatantly stared outright at him as he walked through the market place. "What is this place?" he asked in wonder and awe.

"You are in district thirty of the Rukongai," someone said behind him, a woman in her late fifties stood behind him, "Not the best, but not the worst either."

"What does that even mean?" Lou asked as the woman approached him, he was on his guard, wary of the stranger.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the woman answered, as she stopped, Lou noticed she was slightly taller than Jules, much older looking too, but still in her early fifties. Her likeness to Jules was almost uncanny, it was almost as if . . .

"Who are you?" Lou asked, something stirred in the pit of his stomach.

"Isabel Callaghan," the woman answered, "You?"

"Lewis Young," Lou answered, he took a deep breath, he had once heard Jules talking about her mother, Isabel Callaghan, could this just be a coincidence? Or could this seriously be Jules's mother, the likeness was too similar to be a coincidence, the name was even the same. "I worked with your daughter."

"Julianna," Isabel said softly, her voice choked a bit as Lou nodded, "How is she doing?"

"She's fine, she's a beautiful woman," Lou said kindly as Isabel Callaghan, Jules's mother, hugged him and wept. Lou hugged her back, feeling at peace with himself and happy that he had just made someone's afterlife.

*~*~*~*~*

Lou spent years in the Rukongai, working along side Isabel.

He felt hunger pains, something most people he asked, never experienced. Some offered that he could have spiritual pressure, but when grilled about that, they offered no worthwhile information.

So, Lou went on living his afterlife, eating when ever he got hungry and facing every day as it came, that was, before the hollow attack.

He was with Isabel and a few people that he came to view as friends, they were working on getting food and selling merchandise to people in the market, quite a few soul reapers had gathered in the area as well, mainly lower ranking shinigami looking for a good bargain.

It was a nice day in District 30, the weather was warm, the air was not too humid and the sun shone brightly. It was almost always like this in the Rukongai in the spring time. He took a small break, walking through the market place and then in a more secluded section of town near the forest.

He noticed the atmosphere was getting heavy, almost dark, and he looked up to see if a storm was blowing in. What he didn't see was dark storm clouds heralding rain, he saw a large gash open up in the sky, and out came the most hideous thing he had ever seen in his existence. A giant monster came out of the crack but monster was too kind a word for it.

It was an abomination, an ugly thing, a sneering white mask in the shape of an animal skull, like a moose or a stag deer. It's body was scaly, like a reptile, an over sized dinosaur moose.

It shrieked a blood curdling scream and glared down at Lou. Lou stepped back hesitantly and the monster pounced as Lou sprinted away. He may not have been in the SRU for several years, but he still could out run almost everyone in District 30.

The monster seemed to have disappeared from behind him, only to reappear seconds later in front of the former officer. Lou pulled up short, and stared at the thing. How did it do that?

"HAH!" the monster screeched with the sound akin to scraping sharp steel nails down a chalkboard, "You can't outrun me! You can't fight me! You look like a tasty snack, just sit there and let me eat you!"

Lou glared at the thing, he stood at a ready stance. He wasn't going down without a fight . . .

But he never got the chance to even throw a punch, because right then and there, a dark shape materialized in front of him, a billowing captains haori rested on the shoulders of a young woman with brown hair, Lou had a feeling he knew who she was, but wasn't exactly sure.

The woman had a sword already drawn and aimed at the thing, she stood at a ready stance in front of it and glared.

"A captain level shinigami!" the thing screeched, sounding like an old and rusty door opening slowly, "It must be my lucky day!"

"Not so cocky you third rate reprobate," the captain muttered and then said in a commanding tone, "Strike! Hayato!"

Suddenly, Lou was literally floored by an immense force, he backed up several steps and the captain noticed him out of her peripheral vision, "I suggest you move," she said coldly as she turned her attention back to the thing.

Lou backed up a few feet, but he stayed in the area, he couldn't help but watch the strange visitor fight the monster.

A large, white bolt of electricity jumped from the blade that was already shrouded in lightning and hit the monster straight on. It screeched and clawed at a giant burn on its chest.

"Now you know who you are dealing with," the captain stated, "Saki Hayashi, Captain of Division 5."

Lou started, he knew that name and the memory of his death and entrance to Soul Society came flooding back.

Saki had meanwhile, struck with a deadly battery of slashes that hit the monster and rendered it incapacitated and electrocuted. The thing slowly faded away in a purple cloud.

Lou's legs finally buckled and he fell to the ground, whether from the immense pressure that was released from this woman or the fright of nearly dying . . . again, he'd never know. The next he did know though, was a hand being offered to him by the captain and he took it.

"Hey," she said after Lou stood up and dusted himself off, "You have a pretty good amount of reiatsu."

"What is that?" Lou asked, he had heard the word thrown around with spirit energy, spirit force and even someone said "the Force" while making sounds that a light saber could make.

"It's a power that people can harbor," Saki explained, "It's the energy your spirit releases. And you have a significant amount."

"What does that mean?" Lou was really confused now. Not everyday you get that sort of information.

"It means that you can become a shinigami," Saki said, "That's who I am, a soul reaper or shinigami, it is our duty to guide souls to the afterlife and to protect Soul Society from attack."

"Like the thing you just killed now?" Lou asked looking at where the body of the monster was lying just moments ago.

Saki nodded, "Yes, that was a hollow, a soul that had not made it to Soul Society by a soul reaper and thus was dragged down. It's a sad thing really, but inevitable without a proper guide."

"Captain Hayashi!" a young female voice shouted over and a young woman with her long black hair in a bun ran up.

"Lieutenant Hinamori," Saki acknowledged, "I just cleared things up over here."

"I'm sorry Captain Hayashi, I could have handled it," Lieutenant Hinamori said.

"It's okay, I needed some light exercise anyhow," Saki smiled at her subordinate.

'_Light exercise_,' Lou thought flatly, never in a hundred years could he fight that thing.

"Well, I best be going now," Saki said and turned away, "I hope you think about becoming one of us."

Saki and her subordinate left. Lou couldn't help but think that she looked slightly heroic walking away with an air of confidence, her haori billowing in the wind.

"Lewis!" Isabel ran up, looking after the shinigami captain, "Who was that?"

'_My future_,' Lou thought cryptically but said out loud, "A shinigami captain."

Isabel nodded, that seemed to settle her questions, all but one. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Lou said as he turned away.

The next spring, Lou stood at the gates of the Spiritual Arts Academy, his new uniform on, a blue hakama (trousers) with a blue shitagi (undershirt) and a white kosode (shirt). There were two circular symbols over his chest. They were the emblems of the school. It hadn't been easy finding the place but it had been easy to be admitted.

The proctors had asked for Lou to recite and cast a simple binding spell, his had been so powerful, one of the proctors actually got bound and had to go to a higher level soul reaper to unbind his arm.

It was safe to say that he got in.

Lou looked at the sprawling campus of the Spiritual Arts Academy and stepped inside the gates and into the courtyard. Here was his future.

* * *

**Hope you liked :) Saki beat someone u-up~ ^^ Saki and Ichirou are OCs btw, not actual characters from the Bleach universe. Umm . . . let's see what else. Merry Christmas? Oh, yeah, sorry about last chapter, hakamas are trousers apparently xD.**


	3. First Year

**Sorry for the non-updates! I was busy =/**

**Anyway, this is going to be the first chapter of 6 one shots, one chapter for each year of school Lou goes through. It'll slow down after that.**

**Any mistakes regarding the school are entirely my own and unintentional because . . . frankly, there are no real episodes or info about the school. Yes, I made up the curriculum and school wide alarm clock . . . **

**Last but not least, Lou does remember aspects of his former life, even though in the first movie, it was revealed that people forget their past lives. There is one instance in which this is not true . . . Yȗichi Shibata (the parakeet ghost thingy that Chad adopted before some evil hollow went after it) who remembered his mother's death and Chad's promise to play with him in Soul Society. **

* * *

The first year for Lou was tough to say the least. It was like the police academy all over again but instead of focusing on just tactics and combat, there was math and all the core subjects as well. He got to meet several captains who taught optional classes and teachers who weren't captains but still were soul reapers.

He even bumped into Saki with regularity, she taught an optional photography class, Lou knew because he signed up for it.

Lou excelled at kidō and the sword arts, but he wasn't too keen on shunpo or hand to hand combat.

The average day went so for Lou:

At 6:30 the bell rang for every student to get up, Lou stayed in a dormitory room, he shared it with a lazy guy who wouldn't know what work was, even if it kicked him in the butt. Lou always had to force him out of bed and get to class.

Today was no different . . .

Lou heard the bell broadcasting for everyone to wake up, it was the curse of his former job to be sleeping lightly. Even a bird chirping next to the window would wake him up as if someone fired a gun next to his ear. He got up and stretched, then made his bed and grabbed his uniform that was hanging in the closet.

The hallways were abuzz with students milling about, Lou had already donned his uniform and decided to give his roommate just ten more minutes . . . he walked off to the cafeteria.

After a hasty and brief breakfast, Lou went back to his dormitory to grab his books and things for school, his companion was still sleeping . . .

"Arata!" Lou hissed as he shook his roommate's shoulder, "Arata get up!"

"Mmph, five more minutes . . ." the voice came.

Lou dead panned, he was going to be late for class in five minutes, so he took the sheet Arata was lying on and pulled it roughly. Arata came tumbling off the futon he was lying on and landed with a whump on the hard floor.

Lou didn't even have time to check if Arata was awake, he had to get to his kidō class before it was too late. He rushed off, leaving a still sleeping Arata on the floor.

Lou reached his class just in time, the bell rang right after he entered his seat. The teacher cast a slightly annoyed glance at Lou for being almost late but didn't object.

"Let's begin our lesson for today, Hadō," the teacher said, " Hadō or 'way of destruction spells' we will practice them outside."

The classroom lead to an outdoor firing range, Lou basically summed it up as such on his first day here. The class was split into two groups, one would stand back and watch as the other group stepped forward and fired a volley at the targets.

But now the class was separated into two groups and a random person, this was for what Lou thought, an obvious reason.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," the teacher called.

A tall kid with an afro of orange hair stepped forward, he looked serious. But that didn't stop the results of his attempt at kidō from being disastrous.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" Ichigo recited the incantation perfectly, his stance was more or less acceptable for a first year.

But the spell exploded the moment it lost contact with Ichigo's hand, all the first years had backed off to respectful distances, knowing this would be the result. Ichigo was left covered in soot, blinking disoriented as he stayed in the stance, wondering what the hell just happened.

"Ahem . . ." the teacher continued, "Second group forward," he gave Ichigo a look that plainly said, "you suck".

Lou stepped forward, "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Way of destruction 31, shot of red fire! "

The spell left his hand and shot forth perfectly, hitting the target straight in the bulls eye. This perfection elicited the general reaction of "oohs" and "ahhs".

The teacher nodded at Lou and he sat down. kidō was his best subject after all.

The next class was sword arts, Ichigo was really only in the school to learn kidō or at least attempt some semblance of knowledge in that area, so the inverted carrot was nowhere to be found during the second class. Again, Lou was quite good at it, not as excellent as some people in his class, but good enough to hold his own for several minutes against his peers with greater skill.

Lou dodged a blow from the bokken (1) and countered it with his own battery of blows. He and his partner had a rhythm, the fight was like a dance and the partners had to play it right or they'd fall. A misstep in an actual battle with real blades would draw blood.

Lou lasted ten minutes before his opponent wore him down and Lou was disarmed by an upwards slash. They bowed, a sign of respect for both the victor and the loser, and sat back down.

After a brief lunch, in which Arata had walked into the cafeteria, still wearing his pajamas wondering if it was breakfast, Lou went back to class. The next class he took was shunpo, or flash steps, foot work was always tough for Lou. He was a fast runner, a great sprinter, but getting from point A to point B in the least amount of steps using reiatsu was foreign to him. He didn't end up at the bottom of the class, but he was far from the top.

None of the soul reapers in training could manage shunpoing for any extended length of time, especially in their first year of training. Shunpo reminded Lou of some martial arts movie, but it was real life, the teacher could be standing in the front of the room at one moment, and reappear in the back at the next. It took weeks for Lou's eyes to train to catch the motion as he followed the movement of the teacher.

His third class was hand to hand combat, this seemed to be a class tailored with every martial art in existence and focused on the basics first. The more advanced things were promised in the years to come.

Now, Kevin "Wordy" Wordsworth, Lou's former partner in the SRU, was a martial arts expert, and Lou had often sparred with the guy. But this academy was a lot tougher, you think you've seen it all if you disarm a gun wielding maniac with your bare hands. But getting beat by people half your size and twice your skill was something that took getting used to.

Finally, in the afternoon classes, Lou worked on academics, math, grammar (Japanese because the main language in Soul Society was Japanese), world languages and of course the duties of a Soul Reaper and the history of Soul Society.

It was in the history class that Lou first learned about Aizen. He had heard a few discussions amongst classmates about the former Captain of the 5th division and how he had brought Soul Society to its knees. The teacher only really explained that Aizen was now defeated, it was unknown if he were dead, but Soul Society was in a peaceful era at the moment.

Finally, at the end of the day, Lou grabbed his camera and went down to the optional photography class. It wasn't held in a lecture hall like most of the other classes, rather, a small class room in a smaller wing of the school. The room was separated into an instructional area and a dark room.

The class was small, only around ten students, most people were interested in some of the more popular courses, like the traditional arts and (at least for the girls) fashion design. The Haiku class even got thirty or forty students, but Lou liked the quietness of the photography course, the fine click of the shutter as he pressed the button, the calm blackness of the photo room even the smell of the developing chemicals, though strong, was something he came to like.

Saki, on the other hand, was a patient, yet very cold and aloof teacher, not exactly a favorite among students. She tolerated no fooling around in class and would just about kill anyone who tried to make this a fun/study hall hour rather than an academic endeavor. Lou had a feeling this was why no one wanted to be in the class. He wondered if every captain was like this or only just her.

The class lasted around an hour, and then with night falling fast in the Seireitei, students made their way back to the dormitories and after a dinner and a few hours of feverish studying, the school went into slumber.

Lou fell asleep like he did any night but tonight was different. Usually he dreamed of things that were either totally random or of his former life and new one in the Soul Society. But tonight, he found himself in a large ocean, standing on an iron platform, surrounding him were several platforms, spiraling out from his like the shell on a nautilus. This was certainly new, he realized he seemed more awake than usual in his dream, he was alert to everything that was happening around him.

"Where am I?" he wondered out loud.

He saw a lone figure, dressed elegantly in a kimono and with a bright blue sash tied around its waist, no, not it . . . it was a she.

Lou felt rather at ease with this intruder, though he was still wary, "Who are you?"

The figure glanced up, and suddenly transformed from a woman into a large serpentine creature, it appeared before Lou and wrapped itself around his pillar, "Call for me," it commanded.

"What's your name?" Lou asked, standing his ground, '_Dragon,_' he thought, seeing the wings and clawed feet of the serpent.

"I am called," the creature began, but suddenly, Lou snapped awake, the morning bell had rung. He rushed out of bed and began a new day, with no real recollection of his dream.

* * *

**Okay . . . I'm basing this dragon thing off of the Chinese legend of the four Dragon Kings which were said to control the seas. Of course, I added my own feminine twist and added it as a dragon **_**queen **_**still, it should be fairly cool. (more detail and input will be added in future chapters about Lou's visitor). **

**I was thinking about putting Ichigo as Lou's roommate . . . but yeah, I don't think it would work out. But Ichigo as a student because . . . honestly, he needs to attempt to learn ****Kidō (not bashing him or anything . . .) **

**(1) A bokken is a wooden sword used for training in kenjutsu (kendo) or way of the sword. **

**And if you don't know what a futon is . . . that is the most epic of Japanese vocab fails I have ever seen, in the words of elle127: You fail . . . epically. **


End file.
